I ran aid programmes for 25 years – getting my car fixed at an Islamabad market taught me why they don’t work | Mohammad Altaf Afridi
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Donors mean well, but in Pakistan I saw funds poured into professional, unaccountable NGOs rather than authentic, grassroots civil society
It was a hot and humid August day in a market in Islamabad, not far from my comfortable, air-conditioned office in the US embassy. I was waiting for a mechanic to fix my car. Despite the heat, the market was unusually alive. I asked the mechanic’s helper what was going on. “Today we are electing our association,” he told me – and I could hear the pride in his voice. Intrigued, I walked around and listened.
Every small gathering was deep in animated discussion: the problems facing shopkeepers, government indifference to their needs, the threat of forced eviction – officials wanted to relocate the “dirty” mechanics from the city centre to the outskirts. The atmosphere, the posters, the banners, the sheer intensity of argument, could easily put many national elections to shame. I could not stop myself from thinking: this is real grassroots civil society in action.